They're Here!!

Well, they've been here about 2 weeks now, actually. That's just the awesome blogger that I am. It takes me a little while.

On Wednesday, April 6th around bedtime, as I was reading Jake "Dinosaur Roar" like we do every night, Tim hollered from the garage for me to come out there. I didn't know what he wanted and I still had songs to sing and Sydney to tuck in, so I didn't exactly hurry. When I got out there, he said he thought Molly was in labor and had her in the crate we had built for the pups. We hadn't thought she was due until the following Monday. It was a surprise, for sure.

It didn't take long before she birthed the first one, a black male. He was breach and didn't make it. It was so sad. We tried and tried to rub him and revive him, but it wasn't meant to be. She had another one about 30 minutes later, and it was o.k. And so cute! I hadn't ever seen newborn puppies and wasn't prepared for just how little they are. Just darling!

She kept going off and on all night. Tim wanted to be there for EVERYTHING, so we stayed out in the garage with her until 4am. By that point she had birthed 5 puppies, but both black males were stillborn (the breach one and one that was--we think--just too big and took too long in the birth canal). So we had 3 live puppies, and it had been almost 4 hours since the last one had been born. We were so sad that that was all we were going to get, but what could we do? We were exhausted and Tim had to leave for work in about 3 hours--yikes--so we went to bed a little sad and disappointed, but proud of Molly for how she had done.

At 7am, I went to check on her, and found that 2 more puppies had been born in those 3 hours. Then she had another one while I was taking the kids to school. I thought surely she was done. I kept checking on her every 30-40 minutes. When I checked at 11:30, there was another one! I was shocked! When I called Tim to tell him, he didn't even believe me at first. But that was it. She was finally done. Poor thing pushed out babies for 15 hours!

In the end, we had 7 healthy puppies--5 yellow (3 male, 2 female), 1 black (female), and 1 chocolate (male). She has been an awesome little mother and despite her recently diagnosed case of mastitis, seems like her old self again.

The kids have just been beside themselves with puppy love. Even little Jake, who doesn't like Molly at all, just loves them. And when he has one and I try to pet "his" puppy, he says, "No touch. My puppy." Oh, how that kid makes me smile. And don't get me started on Sydney. She goes straight for the puppies after school each day. She's in heaven.

So far, we have presold 2 puppies, so only 5 more to go. If any one's been looking for a great dog, let me know and I'll hook you up. :)









Yesterday they began opening their eyes and they got even cuter!

Scar-face

Sydney had her first major bike "incident" almost 2 weeks ago. She was on her way home from a friend's house and I wasn't even home--I was picking up Brandon from track practice. When I got home, Tim was holding her in his arms with a wet paper towel over her whole face. I looked in his eyes, and without uttering a word, he said, "It's pretty bad." All I could think was, "Not my girl--why did it have to be my beautiful girl??" Not that I wish injuries on my boys...I just didn't want her to be scarred for life--literally.

Once she calmed down a little, she let me pull the towel off a little and I got to see something I really didn't want to. It was awful! Scraped all across her cheek and starting to swell up and turn purple. Great.





There really wasn't anything we could do to bandage it. After all, it was her face. And right under her eye. So we just kept ice and a towel on it for a while, then just had to let it scar. I figured it would be that way for quite some time. Thankfully I was wrong.



Within just about a week, the whole scab had come off and she was bascially back to normal, just a little pinker skin on that cheek. So glad it didn't last long and so jealous my scars don't heal that quickly. I'm thinking this won't be the last of her injuries with how much of a tough girl she is...

So apparently they know what they're doing at WW

Today marks my one-month anniversary with Weight Watchers. It's not technically my weigh-in day, but I wanted to have an accurate measure of where I've come in the first month, so I weighed in anyway. I've lost 8 pounds! And when I add in the 4 pounds I lost on my own earlier this year, that's 12 for the year, and about halfway to my goal of 25. Feeling pretty freaking amazing right about now!!!

The best part is that it hasn't been too painful. There are no special workouts I have to do, no special protein shakes or special food I have to buy/choke down--just being smarter in my food choices and very deliberate in and accountable for what I am putting in my mouth. I so wish I would have tried this years ago, like right after I had Jake, but better late than never.

Just putting it out there, that if you're wondering about Weight Watchers or if it really works, I'll add my endorsement to the masses. For me, it has been just what I need and has fit into my busy family life--I still eat normal dinners with my family--I just usually load up on the veggies more than usual and keep my portions reasonable.

Anyway, that's a lot of rambling, and I feel like WW should pay me something for all the good things I just said, but I want to keep a record of my journey, and this blog is where I'm choosing to do that. Can't wait to see where I am one month from now!!!